NAFTA's impact on Mexican farming
By Kelly Christopherson

On Friday, Sept. 23, Jesus Leon Santos and Pedro Torres Ochoa spoke to a gathering of 20 people about the problems Mexican farmers are facing after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The two farmers are from Oaxaca and Chihuahua respectively — two of the poorest farming regions in Mexico.

According to Santos and Ochoa, NAFTA has caused the prices of local products to fall drastically.

“Before NAFTA, we were getting three pesos for our corn,” Santos said. “Now we only get one and a half pesos.”

“The smallest producers of corn and beans have almost disappeared since the start of NAFTA. The medium producers have been de-capitalized,” Ochoa said.

While prices have fallen dramatically in the year since NAFTA went into effect, prices of other things have increased.

“The basic price of food has tripled, while farmers’ incomes have gone down,” Santos said.

This problem leads to other problems, such as poverty and migration. According to NAFTA, the rate of extreme poverty, which is considered to be those receiving less than two dollars a day, is 40 percent of the nation. This is why migration to the United States has increased to more than 400,000 people per year.

“They don’t leave because they want to see the U.S. They leave because they have no economic option,” Santos said. “People are trying to find different ways to support their families.”

Ochoa and Santos believe that there are similarities between what small farmers are experiencing here and what is happening in Mexico as well.

“We aren’t speaking out against U.S. farmers,” Santos said. “We think we should all work together.”

“We’re looking for alliances here because we know our problems are similar,” Ochoa said.

Mexican farmers, or campos, are also looking internally to help offset costs.

“We’re looking for alternatives like using local inputs instead of losing money so we can retake local markets,” Santos said. “It’s a very hard job.”

Ochoa and Santos both stated that getting the Mexican government to help them is difficult.

“We walk on both feet: protest, then proposal,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa organized more than 100,000 people in a movement called the Countryside Cannot Stand Anymore, to pressure the government into sitting down and listening to the farmers. The government has not yet come through on any of the agreements made.

“The government has recognized us for our power and will sit down with us to hear us,” Ochoa said. “We don’t leave our problems for government to solve.”

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